AN 83-YEAR-OLD woman had to endure a 51-hour wait in casualty for a bed at a Welsh hospital.

AN 83-YEAR-OLD woman had to endure a 51-hour wait in casualty for a bed at a Welsh hospital.

Another pensioner, aged 84, waited 49 hours for a bed at the same hospital, Nevill Hall in Abergavenny.

The women were waiting for isolation beds in the hospital because they were carrying infection, but the cases highlight worrying shortages in beds and staff in the Welsh NHS.

In Cardiff, a 95-year-old woman was left waiting on a hospital trolley for 32 hours for a bed at University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff.

The annual snapshot of Welsh casualty services, carried out by the Association of Welsh Community Health Councils, discovered the cases. It found 93% of patients in accident and emergency were delayed because of bed shortages.

The report also found that nine hospitals in Wales had longer waiting times than last year and two of those - Nevill Hall and Prince Philip Hospital, Llanelli - had a significant increase in the number of patients waiting.

A spokesman for Gwent Healthcare NHS Trust, said, "This is an inaccurate picture of patients waiting for treatment. The two patients identified were in fact in our assessment unit.

"Both were in beds, both had been seen by a consultant and both were receiving clinical intervention. The reason they were not on a ward is that both were waiting for isolation beds."

David Edwards, chief executive for Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust, said, "We continue to have more patients needing beds than we can accommodate and so we constantly have to prioritise on the basis of clinical need."